The Liebster Award: My First Ever Blogging Award!!!

 

I’m interrupting the usual ‘Australia’ programming to tell you about something very exciting that happened to me yesterday. Picture this…I finish work, do my usual quick check of my phone before leaving work and there was a snapchat waiting for me from one of my fellow bloggers that I follow. I thought “this is a little strange” so I instantly checked the snap, and there it was, a message from the lovely Ally from hyrdosupralicked telling me she’d nominated me for a Liebster Award. Woohoo!

Shameless plug!

 

Now I’ll be honest here, while I’d heard of this award, I wasn’t entirely sure what it was or what it meant *cue google*, but it’s truly an honour to receive the nomination. I’m a part time blogger but I put a lot of time and energy into my blogs so it’s amazing to recieve some kind of recognition and I guess it means I’m doing something right.

So what the heck is the Liebster Award, I hear you ask?!

Let me explain, The Liebster Award is an award given to bloggers by other bloggers and only exists on the online world. It’s a chance for bloggers to support each other and give recognition to new and up and coming blogs with 200 followers or less. I’ve had my blog a little over a year now and it takes some serious work to get recognition in the blogosphere world so every little helps.

So how does it work? – The RULES!

Now there’s a few housekeeping rules to adhere to. Seems that over time the rules have been adapted but i’m going to play by my nominees rules:

1. Post the award to your blog to accept nomination
2. Answer the questions you were given by the person who nominated you
3. Nominate a small group of bloggers you have discovered
4. Create 10 new questions for the nominees

Thank the blogger who nominated you and link to their blog

Enough waffling let’s get onto the questions!

1. How did you decide to pick your blog name?

When i first started my blog before I started a year long stint in Australia last year. I did a lot of research on what makes a good blog name. The most common trend was “something short and succinct” or “something that identifies in a few words what your blog is about” or “including your name in the title”. I decided this was the best advise I could find and I was going with it. I went through a list of different titles, but this is how I came up with the name. ‘Dukes’ is my nickname and has been since I was a teen, a ‘shortened’ version of my first name which is ‘Aduke’ shortened in syllables but not in length, and ‘adventures’ well my blog is solely about travelling or as I like to think of it as my adventures, which had a better ring to it than dukestravels don’t you think? So voila dukesadventures.com was born!

2.     What are 5 words that describe your personal style?

Loud, crazy, chaotic, unorganised, nomad

3. Where is a place you’d like to travel but have never been before?

South and Central America namely Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica Guatemala will be on my hit list sometime soon.

4. What inspired you to start blogging?

I’ve always wanted to write a blog. I did a Journalism degree and whilst studying I started a different blog, but I kept it private and I generally wrote once a year. This time round though I was going travelling for at least year and I wanted a way for my family and friends to keep up to date with what i was up to. It just made sense really.

5. Where would you encourage others to travel to?

I wish I could reel off some hidden treasures but I haven’t found them yet! Of course i’m going to have to say AUSTRALIA it’s the 1 place i’ve been and spent the most amount of time. At the moment my blog is concentrated on Australia so I’d be stupid to say anything else but honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by this massive country in the South Pacific. I would encourage people not just to stick to the big cities like Sydney and Melbourne and venture to the less touristic areas and see a little more of the land.

6. What is your favourite quote?

“We weren’t born to just pay bills and die” i’m living by this quote at the moment. 

7. Tell me about your most memorable travel experience?

Roadtripping though the Outback of Australia, from Melbourne through the middle of the country up to Cairns. Now that was an experience to remember.

8. What was your first concert?

Gosh I have no idea. I think my earliest memory is probably Usher in 2002 or 2003.

9. Do you remember the first time you danced?

Nope, but I’ve seen it. My 2nd birthday party dancing to Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ during musical statues. I’m not sure if you can call it dancing though but like jumping up and down on the spot.

10. How do you decide what you are going to blog about?

Easy, wherever I travel to next and whatever adventures happen whilst I’m there.

So who gets my vote?

It takes a lot of dedication to maintain and develop a blog so I applaud each of the following:

Luke Kenny from The Aussie Traveller

Mary Leong over at Tiny Lady Big World

Zoe from sketchpacker

Kate from Enchanting wanderlust

Katie from The world on my Necklace

Alison at abrierleywriting

Nicola and Katie over at Tip Our Trip

My Questions to you

1. Where is your next planned travel destination?
2. What’s the best thing about a travel blog?
3. When travelling what photographic equipment do you use to get those instaperfect pictures?
4. What is your best and worst travel memory?
5. Which is better travelling solo or with friends?
6. If you could choose 1 place in the world to live where would it be?
7. What’s your best travel tip?
8. What is your number 1 travel item?
9. What is your favourite social media platform?
10. Who is your favourite travel blogger?

Thank you again to Ally for the nomination, check out her site and follow her on snapchat @allyfiesta.

Happy Blogging!

Tags: blogging, liebsteraward, travelblogger, travelling